Mercury in corn syrup and other problems

[lindajdunn]

I'm glad I've always been a finicky eater and gave up Pepsi years ago, when they changed the formula and I couldn't stomach the taste.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...duletmv&sub=AR

USAToday has essentially the same article.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/health...50Q5IA20090127

Dr. David Wallinga, a food safety researcher and activist at the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said he followed up on the report to find mercury in actual food.

"When I learned of that work, I said that is interesting but we don't just go out and eat a spoonful of high fructose corn syrup," Wallinga said in a telephone interview.

"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.

"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136879.php - another non-Huffingtonpost.com link

http://www.healthobservatory.org/lib...m?refID=105040 - here's a listing of 55 foods and beverages high in HFCS and the level of mercury is listed for each

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup has 257 mercury detected ppt but (perhaps fortunately, for me) dark chocolate M&Ms are not listed at all.

Most of the articles I've found online are bits and pieces of the same article merely rearranged. It appears the government has known about this since about 2005.

CBS has a slightly different angle on this.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2518201.shtml

Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.

Safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year, according to the agency's own statistics.

So am I the only one with a magnifying glass in my hand, prepared to read all the labels on all the food and drink in my refrigerator?

[tchwojko]

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup has 257 mercury detected ppt but (perhaps fortunately, for me) dark chocolate M&Ms are not listed at all.

257 parts per trillion. Let's write that number out:
257 parts per 1,000,000,000,000.

That's pretty darn close to infinitesimal. I think the corn syrup itself might be more of a health hazard. I do think that high fructose corn syrup is nasty, on several levels.

For reference: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/cabs/mercur...html#guideline
Bottled water < 2 parts per billion
Fish < 1 part per million

[OROD]

I do think that high fructose corn syrup is nasty, on several levels.

Why? Because it's made from corn? Because it doesnt have artificial ingredients and, like sugar, is fine in moderation?

[Fencergrl]

So am I the only one with a magnifying glass in my hand, prepared to read all the labels on all the food and drink in my refrigerator?

I have always read food labels (since I was a teen).

I must admit, I'm a little surprised by some items... Lipton green tea? It's tea leaves and tea bag. Where does the corn syrup/ mercury come in? Not that I care... I don't drink Lipton because I hate crappy tea that's bitter.

I'm also a little surprised how many items I have never tried much less buy on a regular basis. Most of the stuff I don't eat because it's inferior quality (like the tea) and food is one place I'll spend more money on to get quality. This is one time, you get what you pay for. Cheaply produced food for the masses with things added to make it palatable / cheaper to make / easier to transport & store.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Why? Because it's made from corn? Because it doesnt have artificial ingredients and, like sugar, is fine in moderation?

And they say TV advertising doesn't work...

Those Astroturf ads should be a instant clue that someone's blowing smoke.

[OROD]

Those Astroturf ads should be a instant clue that someone's blowing smoke.

OMG... OMG... those bastards, I've been saying that about corn cyrup for years, and now they come around and rip off my idea? What the heck? Where's my money?

Law suit! Law suit!!

.

[tchwojko]

Why? Because it's made from corn? Because it doesnt have artificial ingredients and, like sugar, is fine in moderation?

No, mainly because it doesn't have flavor or nutrition to make it worth the calories.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Now I have a perverse desire to see the documentary "King Korn."

[Hauptman]

Why? Because it's made from corn? Because it doesnt have artificial ingredients and, like sugar, is fine in moderation?

Seriously though, HFCS is not the same as sugar. While it has almost an identical chemical structure, sugar requires the body to manufacture sucrase to fully digest it while HFCS does not. This is a limiting factor in how fast the body can process sugar versus HFCS.

There are also studies that show elevated blood levels of chemicals related to diabetes after consuming HFCS that don't occur after consuming sugar. Other studies link HFCS to insulin resistance as well.

I'd rather just avoid it. Sugar or honey is fine in moderation as well. Plus I hate the political/economic mess we have in this country that subsidizes corn production and the ripple effects this has on our food industry and overall nutrition levels.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Now I have to Wiki...what the ... is "corn syrup"?!

[fencerchica]

It seems to me that in addition to any inherent problems with ingesting HFCS, it's also been abused due to its cheapness. People who eat a lot of pre-packaged foods are going to be ingesting a heck of a lot more sugar than they would've been if more expensive actual cane/beet sugar were being used. On top of that, excessive use of HFCS is also a means of making unhealthful pre-packaged foods a little more palatable and thus increasing consumption.

[lindajdunn]

Now I have to Wiki...what the ... is "corn syrup"?!

In its simpliest terms: a sugar substitute that is made from corn.



HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup - probably dates back to the 70s and has pretty much replaced sugar in most drinks and foods around here. Americans consume more HFCS than sugar. It's cheaper.

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar and is easier to transport.

Four companies control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion business--Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley Manufacturing Co. and CPC International.

Check out this link: http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy--that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."

[Zilverzmurfen]

In its simpliest terms: a sugar substitute that is made from corn.



HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup - probably dates back to the 70s and has pretty much replaced sugar in most drinks and foods around here. Americans consume more HFCS than sugar. It's cheaper.

I looked it up on wikipedia. I'm not sure I've ever seen it as an ingredient here. Either way, the sheer combination of the words 'corn' and 'syrup' sounded really...odd...to me.

(Thanks for the explanation, Linda!)

[OROD]

I looked it up on wikipedia. I'm not sure I've ever seen it as an ingredient here. Either way, the sheer combination of the words 'corn' and 'syrup' sounded really...odd...to me.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in every other food-like processed item out there, I'm pretty sure you must have had it before and just didnt realize it.

.

[sionnach]

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in every other food-like processed item out there, I'm pretty sure you must have had it before and just didnt realize it.

.

In the United States it is. It's extremely rare to find it in products in the EU, I can't recall ever seeing it.

[tchwojko]

In the United States it is. It's extremely rare to find it in products in the EU, I can't recall ever seeing it.

In the US we not only have food, we have "food products."

[MyrddinsPrecint]

In the United States it is. It's extremely rare to find it in products in the EU, I can't recall ever seeing it.

When used in a home setting (I've only really used it for Pecan Pie) it's very similar to "Golden Syrup" which I hear rumor is available in the UK, and they can supposedly be substituted for each other.

But in any sort of packaged food or drink in the US, it's very hard to avoid.

My perspective?

Usually the companies that make food without HFCS are going for quality rather than cheapness, since usually the HFCS was the cheaper ingredient. So I'm not entirely sure if I like food without HFCS better, or if I like food that is overall higher quality better. In any case, I avoid HFCS when there's an easy alternative, I eat it when there's not, and I try not to think about it too much. There are plenty of ways to die, and if I go crazy worrying about the most recent discovered horrible thing, I won't enjoy ... living.

[Fencergrl]

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in every other food-like processed item out there, I'm pretty sure you must have had it before and just didnt realize it.

In the United States it is. It's extremely rare to find it in products in the EU, I can't recall ever seeing it.

I find it interesting/ amusing. The US manufacturers use it because it is cheap form of sugar. It's cheap because lobbyists have managed to get it subsidized. Not all parts of the world are affected by this, or buy a lot of American made "food" (and I use this term lightly).

I also can't help but wonder how that would "go over". If food that has been genetically modified has to be labelled as such in Europe (but not here) would that market accept cheap, sugary additives in their food? Would most not ask why something made from corn is being added to jam/ pop/ sauce?

[lindajdunn]

I find it interesting/ amusing. The US manufacturers use it because it is cheap form of sugar. It's cheap because lobbyists have managed to get it subsidized.

Brought to you by the same government that subsidizes tobacco AND smoking cessation programs.

[keith]

When used in a home setting (I've only really used it for Pecan Pie) it's very similar to "Golden Syrup" which I hear rumor is available in the UK, and they can supposedly be substituted for each other

Supposedly is correct.